Good old 2ch versus multi-ch, what to do?

You can do some SACD searches here-abouts and get quite the range of opinions. I was talking the other day with a fellow audiophile when I remarked that most of my friends prefer two channel in my home theatre and he said something i need to think about.

"when you have five channel you don't have to turn the volumn up so much...you can still talk and listen at the same time."

Well, it sounded real deep at the time, anyway.

Forget multichannel, if you want the "sound is all arround you" gimmic just pop Roger Waters Amused to Death into a good two channel system and get the multichannel urge out of your system.

Although I have a multi-channel SACD player, I only
listen in two-channel. I use 5.1 surround sound for
movies, but never for music listening. Is it possible
to reach audio nirvana with two-channel SACD? Absolutely. Before I had the Dac6, I had a Sony SCD
XA777ES CD/SACD player, which also has multi-channel capability, but I only played it in two-channel
and it sounded great on both CD's and SACD's. I bought it on Audiogon for $1,600 used. Since the Dac6 is not a realistic option for a lot of people, I usually find myself recommending the Sony -- it was a damn nice player. I gave it to my younger brother for his birthday and he absolutely loves it. And, he only listens in two-channel. I recommended the Sony to another friend,
he bought one, used, on Audiogon and he called me a few days ago, ecstatic. And, he only listens in two-channel.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE SURROUND SOUND AND A LOT OF SPEAKERS TO ENJOY SACD.

TWO-CHANNEL SACD SOUNDS GREAT!

Sorry for the shouting.

Thank you.

Oh, and between your DVD-A player and the Sony, you
will have all of your bases covered and will get much
better music play-back than with any Universal Player
you will buy for the same amount of money. A universal
player is NOT the way to go to get superior music play-back. You pay a premium for having them stuff every-
thing into one box and you pay a price in compromised
sonics when they shove everything into one box.

When was the last time you attended live music and had speakers on the back wall? I hate it. Just balance the room acoustically and listen to 2 channel.